Before a person leaves home, it is often important to check on equipment that may be operating and remember anything that may be hazardous if left untended. This can include shutting off appliances, putting out cigarettes, or taking precautionary steps such as locking the door, putting out or confining a pet, turning on a light or radio, leaving a message for someone, etc. These details are easy to forget as a person is leaving home and concerned with the mission ahead.
The invention involves recognition of the problem of remembering details upon leaving home and proposes a simple and convenient reminder device for automatically reminding the person leaving home to check on things to be done. The invention aims at simplicity, economy, and reliability in a reminder device.
The invention also involves recognition of a way that operation of a reminder device can be applied to other circumstances to achieve other advantages. For example, a communication appliance having predetermined audio, visual, or combinations of audio and visual messages, such as an advertising device, can be operated automatically whenever a customer approaches a sales region so that the advertising message can be presented to the customer. Such a communication appliance can be a television, tape recorder, projector, movable mechanism, or a combination of these. The invention can also be applied to buildings other than a home, and can present information to security personnel or instructions or other appropriate messages to persons entering a region, as well as leaving a region.